Ridiculous ads

[jasonxctf]

Call this a partisan comment, but I'm a bit annoyed by the attack line used against Alexei for Senate. He lost $150 million in the College Savings Fund. If you look closely at the reference date for that comment, its from January 2009. Right after the DOW took a huge tumble.

 

Anyone else want to tell me what other funds didn't lose money from 2007-2009. Probably every single one of them.

 

I just don't know why Alexei doesn't post a response showing that the fund has regained all (if not more than all) of it's losses in the past 14 months as the DOW has moved up 40%.

[jasonxctf]

Call this a partisan comment, but I'm a bit annoyed by the attack line used against Alexei for Senate. He lost $150 million in the College Savings Fund. If you look closely at the reference date for that comment, its from January 2009. Right after the DOW took a huge tumble.

 

Anyone else want to tell me what other funds didn't lose money from 2007-2009. Probably every single one of them.

 

I just don't know why Alexei doesn't post a response showing that the fund has regained all (if not more than all) of it's losses in the past 14 months as the DOW has moved up 40%.

 

 

in fact, check it out. It looks like these funds have only been around since 2007.

 

https://www.brightstartsavings.com/OFI529/A...fo.do?term=long

[Balta1701]

in fact, check it out. It looks like these funds have only been around since 2007.

 

https://www.brightstartsavings.com/OFI529/A...fo.do?term=long

Where were the funds beforehand? I don't know the issue at all, but is it possible this could be a case of taking a previously safe investment and, rather than playing it safe, following the herd and moving the funds into the ever-rising stock market where people never lose money? A whole lot of municipalities screwed themselves by joining in that game in the 05-07 period, convinced to buy mortgage backed securities by investment firms with their pension funds & stuff like that.

[jasonxctf]

Not sure. But it looks like the Bright Start program started in 2007. Shoot he was elected in Nov 2006.

 

Found some more info... that ad looks to be even more misleading than I thought.

 

Bright Start

As Illinois Treasurer, Giannoulias is responsible for overseeing the Illinois' Bright Start college saving program. Bright Start provides parents with the opportunity to invest in a tax-free account to save for their children's college education. Enrollees are eligible for several state tax benefits and can invest in various stock and bond options.[24] Before Giannoulias took office, SavingForCollege.com ranked Bright Start 47th out of 48 in the nation.[25] Giannoulias helped reform the program,[26] and Bright Start went from being one of the worst programs in the country to one of the best. Morningstar called the transformation “a Cinderella story.”[27]In 2008, one of the twenty-one funds in Bright Start, Core Plus, began experiencing excessive losses and eventually lost 38% of its value. In the same year, the overall Bright Start program’s benchmark grew by 5.4%.[28] Within the Illinois Bright Start program, 2.5% of investors had invested their entire portfolios in Core Plus and suffered a 38% loss; others experienced smaller losses.[28]

 

As the Associated Press reported, "It turns out the Oppenheimer team handling Core Plus — a team the company has now fired — was putting money into risky, complicated investments that tanked in 2008 amid the general financial meltdown."[25] In 2009, Oregon,[29] Nebraska,[30] New Mexico,[31] Texas,[31] Maine[31] and Illinois[31] all investigated OppenheimerFunds’ handling of the their college savings programs for impermissible investments and misconduct. Oppenheimer was selected to lead the program by Giannoulias' predecessor, former Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, in December 2006, a month before Giannoulias took office.[32]

 

After the credit markets collapsed in the fall, new contributions into the fund were halted on December 4, 2008.[25] In January 2009, the treasurer’s office announced that no further contributions would be made to the Core Plus fund and that the state would be investigating the losses.[33]

 

According to the Associated Press, Illinois was the first state to take action.[25] In January 2009, at the request of Giannoulias, the Illinois Attorney General initiated its own probe of OppenheimerFunds, issuing subpoenas on the company.[28] At the time, the losses attributable to OppenheimerFunds' impermissible investments were estimated to be "in excess of $85 million."[28]

 

Despite the problem associated with OppenheimerFunds' handling of Core Plus, Bright Start remains a highly-regarded 529 college savings program. In April 2009, Consumer Reports studied college savings programs across the country “to see how well they performed during last year’s stock-market plunge.”[34] Consumer Reports “found five that are worthy of an A,” and ranked Bright Start as one of the top five college savings programs in the nation.[34] In April 2009, Money Magazine selected Bright Start as one the “best low-risk 529 plans.”[35] In December 2009, Kiplinger's selected Bright Start as one of the best state 529 plans in the country, choosing it as the best plan for “low fees.”[36] Morningstar, Inc., which had previously ranked Bright Start in its top 5 in 2008, has acknowledged the issues relating to Core Plus but, citing Illinois’ swift action in dealing with the issue, reported in 2009 that “the plan still holds plenty of appeal.”[37]

 

In December 2009, the Illinois Attorney General's Office and the Office of the State Treasurer announced that Illinois had reached a settlement with OppenheimerFunds.[38] Eligible accountholders who lost money in Core Plus would receive $77 million from OppenheimerFunds. As the scope of the settlement was expanded during negotiations with OppenheimerFunds to include more accountholders, the total loss addressed by the settlement is $150 million.[39] The payout from this settlement brings the losses for the 2.5% of Bright Start investors who were fully invested in Core Plus down to 17%.

 

[mr_genius]

You refer to Kentucky...but Rand Paul is the legitimate front-runner in that race, and Conway has actually closed the gap if anything. He certainly hasn't been hurt by his ads.

 

i think aquabuddhagate is having an effect

 

the outsourcing ads the Democrats have been running are closing some gaps (or even building leads) in some races the GOP really wanted to win.

[Cknolls]

Call this a partisan comment, but I'm a bit annoyed by the attack line used against Alexei for Senate. He lost $150 million in the College Savings Fund. If you look closely at the reference date for that comment, its from January 2009. Right after the DOW took a huge tumble.

 

Anyone else want to tell me what other funds didn't lose money from 2007-2009. Probably every single one of them.

 

I just don't know why Alexei doesn't post a response showing that the fund has regained all (if not more than all) of it's losses in the past 14 months as the DOW has moved up 40%.

 

 

I believe it was a certain fund that was supposed to be a conservative investment. But like all other funds at the time, this fund reached for extra yield and was bitten. They probably sold all risky investments, hence the awful return and absent participation with the subsequent move off the March '09 lows.

[EvilMonkey]

So... I ask my fellow Busterites... and let's see if this can stay non-partisan for a bit... what to do about it? What's the solution here?

Didn't even make it to page 2 before Balta jumped that shark.

[NorthSideSox72]

i think aquabuddhagate is having an effect

 

the outsourcing ads the Democrats have been running are closing some gaps (or even building leads) in some races the GOP really wanted to win.

 

Is it the ads though? Honestly I don't know. There is also the possibility that the angry votes for changing to anything went GOP, and now people see that some of these GOP candidates aren't any better (or, in the case of some of the Tea Party faves, are worse), so maybe they are sobering a bit. Or, as I saw someone point out, there is the fact that for whatever reason, the Dems tend to get their base going later in the cycle than GOP'ers do.

 

[Texsox]

I am at least starting to have some respect for the groups like the Swift Boat guys who at least identified themselves and made their accusations. Of course it is easy enough to assume that whomever is paying for the ads has a biased agenda.

[Balta1701]

I am at least starting to have some respect for the groups like the Swift Boat guys who at least identified themselves and made their accusations. Of course it is easy enough to assume that whomever is paying for the ads has a biased agenda.

Is it worth pointing out that the Swift boats were organized as a 527...and as such actually had to disclose their contributors?

[southsider2k5]

Is it worth pointing out that the Swift boats were organized as a 527...and as such actually had to disclose their contributors?

 

Only if it is pointed out that Obama wouldn't disclose his complete list to the public, so we don't know who gave to him either.

 

http://www.lvrj.com/blogs/mitchell/Why_all...ch.html?ref=618

[Balta1701]

Only if it is pointed out that Obama wouldn't disclose his complete list to the public, so we don't know who gave to him either.

 

http://www.lvrj.com/blogs/mitchell/Why_all...ch.html?ref=618

How much influence does $199 buy?

[southsider2k5]

How much influence does $199 buy?

 

Its always different.

[Balta1701]

Its always different.

You didn't answer the question.

[southsider2k5]

You didn't answer the question.

 

According to you, we don't know how much, because we have no idea how much it really is. Remember the majority of Obama's donations were small, so theoretically they could have just made everything foreign, small, and then hid it from view.

[lostfan]

Call this a partisan comment, but I'm a bit annoyed by the attack line used against Alexei for Senate. He lost $150 million in the College Savings Fund. If you look closely at the reference date for that comment, its from January 2009. Right after the DOW took a huge tumble.

 

Anyone else want to tell me what other funds didn't lose money from 2007-2009. Probably every single one of them.

 

I just don't know why Alexei doesn't post a response showing that the fund has regained all (if not more than all) of it's losses in the past 14 months as the DOW has moved up 40%.

This is what's annoying to me about the Maryland races. Yeah in the last year the state has lost jobs under O'Malley (who I really don't like btw). Anyone care to point out who hasn't in the global recession? I get that this is standard political stuff (O'Malley bulls***ted about energy rate hikes knowing he wasn't going to do anything about it because he couldn't) but it's still insulting to my intelligence.

[mr_genius]

Is it the ads though? Honestly I don't know. There is also the possibility that the angry votes for changing to anything went GOP, and now people see that some of these GOP candidates aren't any better (or, in the case of some of the Tea Party faves, are worse), so maybe they are sobering a bit. Or, as I saw someone point out, there is the fact that for whatever reason, the Dems tend to get their base going later in the cycle than GOP'ers do.

 

impossible to say for sure. but i think if you strike a nerve in political ads, they can be very effective.

[lostfan]

i think aquabuddhagate is having an effect

 

the outsourcing ads the Democrats have been running are closing some gaps (or even building leads) in some races the GOP really wanted to win.

GOP has an enormous advantage in the 3rd party ad category, I think what happened is that the GOP peaked sometime around the summer so you have some regression to the mean, or whatever you want to call it. So instead of it being a "super ultra mega bloodbath for the Dems who could possibly lose 10,000 seats" now we are just back to "possible GOP takeover of the house"

[Balta1701]

According to you, we don't know how much, because we have no idea how much it really is. Remember the majority of Obama's donations were small, so theoretically they could have just made everything foreign, small, and then hid it from view.

But there are 2 things there that would have put people in jail. Taking large donations and slicing them up into small donations to avoid disclosure requirements is patently illegal. Taking contributions from admitted foreign citizens is patently illegal. An FEC claim was filed on the latter by the RNC in 2008, and as far as I can tell it went no where. As far as I can tell, no one has ever alleged the first. Can you back that up?

[southsider2k5]

But there are 2 things there that would have put people in jail. Taking large donations and slicing them up into small donations to avoid disclosure requirements is patently illegal. Taking contributions from admitted foreign citizens is patently illegal. An FEC claim was filed on the latter by the RNC in 2008, and as far as I can tell it went no where. As far as I can tell, no one has ever alleged the first. Can you back that up?

 

I have exactly as much evidence as you do when you claim foreign donations are paying for these commercials.

[NorthSideSox72]

I have exactly as much evidence as you do when you claim foreign donations are paying for these commercials.

And that right there is a problem.

 

Just curious... what was your take on the SCOTUS decision on financing?

 

[Balta1701]

I have exactly as much evidence as you do when you claim foreign donations are paying for these commercials.

Actually the fact that the COC receives a large amount of funding from foreign sources is 100% well established. They schedule and hold public events all over the world. The Chamber's own websites list foreign dues paying companies as members. Would you like to join the U.S.-Bahrain cooperative of the COC? Here's the form. The only question is how strictly you want to apply bookkeeping rules. The money for tax purposes all goes into the same 501©6 account which does not disclose its contributors and out of which has come $70 million in campaign expenditures for this year.

 

Chamber of Commerce director of media relations J.P. Fielder said that money goes to the group's general fund and then to the international division, keeping it away from any political activities.

ABC

[southsider2k5]

Actually the fact that the COC receives a large amount of funding from foreign sources is 100% well established. They schedule and hold public events all over the world. The Chamber's own websites list foreign dues paying companies as members. Would you like to join the U.S.-Bahrain cooperative of the COC? Here's the form. The only question is how strictly you want to apply bookkeeping rules. The money for tax purposes all goes into the same 501©6 account which does not disclose its contributors and out of which has come $70 million in campaign expenditures for this year.

 

ABC

 

Exactly zero evidence.

[southsider2k5]

And that right there is a problem.

 

Just curious... what was your take on the SCOTUS decision on financing?

 

Its been pretty well established that the dollar vote is considered protective speech. It didn't surprise me at all that they extended it like this. I'm not a fan of the idea, but I don't see any way around it honestly.

[Balta1701]

Exactly zero evidence.

It's not enough for a conviction, but it'd be enough to get a subpoena if it was actually illegal any more.